Video: Corvette ZR1 Slashes Six Seconds Off of ‘Ring Time

Six seconds doesn’t sound like a long time. After all, what can you do in six seconds? Maybe type a sentence, eat a (small) bite of a hamburger, clip your fingernails… not a whole hell of a lot. And yet in the world of motorsports, six seconds might as well be six minutes, as shaving off even a few tenths of a second can stand between a world record, and just another run.

Which is what makes this video of the 2012 Corvette ZR1 tackling the Nurburgring so special. The 2012 model of the ZR-1 adds a few performance features which help it to shave off a whole six seconds from its previous run. Sweet.

Sure, the C6 Corvette may be getting long in the tooth, but that just gives Chevrolet engineers a chance to tune and tweak it to absolute perfection. For the 2012 model year, the Corvette ZR1 gets some substantial upgrades, including Performance Traction Management and new Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Zero Pressure tires.

While it may not seem like much, together these two upgrades gave the 2012 ZR1 the ability to take its Nurburgring time down from 7:26.4 to 7:19.63. That’s almost seven seconds shaved off of its previous time. Impressive work, to say the least, and now the bar has been raised once more. How will GM top this? Perhaps with a ZR2 that can shave offer another 19 seconds and take the Corvette under the six-minute mark? That’d be quite the feat indeed, one that few cars in the history of the ‘Ring have ever done. But if any car can do it, it’s the Corvette.